A 15-year-old schoolboy, residing in Nalasopara in Palghar district of Mumbai fell prey to a Kaun Banega Crorepati fake call and was duped of Rs 3 lakhs. A case of cheating has been registered at Nalasopara police station.
The victim, Manish Jha, originally hailing from Darbhanga in Bihar was on his way to his relative’s house in Nalasopara with his mother when he received the first call on August 1. The caller claimed to be a part of the popular game show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, a popular TV show on Sony Entertainment Television hosted by Indian film industry superstar, Amitabh Bachchan.
He told Jha that he had won Rs 25 lakh in a lucky draw and asked him to deposit a processing fee of Rs 20,000 in a bank account. The teenager could not contain himself and convinced his mother to deposit the money, said a police officer.
After the amount was deposited, Jha received another call from the same number and the ‘KBC representative’ told him to deposit another Rs 2.8 lakh. Jha once again convinced his mother to give the money.
However, after not receiving the cash reward for the next one month, Jha and his mother got worried. On September 1, Jha called the number from which he had received the call, but it was unreachable. Jha and his mother realized that they had been conned and approached the Nalasopara police.
The police are examining the details of the bank account in which the Jhas had deposited the money in an attempt to get some lead in the case.
This is not the first instance where a viewer has fallen prey to a ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ scam. Last year too, a car mechanic from Bengaluru lost over Rs 1 lakh to a ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ scam over a period of 10 days after he deposited the money into multiple bank accounts handled by fraudsters. He too was duped by a caller who claimed of being a KBC representative and convinced the mechanic that he had won Rs 35 lakh in a lucky draw.
During the show the host Amitabh Bachchan regularly urges the viewers to not pay any money for the show, saying that the show does not require any deposit to be made to participate or to win prize money. But still some people fall prey to such scams.
In a shocking CCTV footage that has emerged online, retired Hyderabad High Court Justice Nooty Ramamohana Rao, his wife and his son are seen allegedly assaulting their daughter-in-law, Sindhu Sharma. In April this year, the victim Sindhu Sharma had levelled allegations of domestic violence against her in-laws saying that she was beaten up for dowry.
Sindhu had alleged that Justice (Retd) Ramamohana Rao, his wife Nooty Durga Jaya Lakshmi and her husband Nooty Vasista had physically assaulted her demanding dowry.
Now, the emergence of CCTV footage showing violence being meted out to Sindhu by his in-laws family corroborate her allegations of domestic violence against the 3 family members. “My husband used to beat me up habitually and make demands for dowry. Like in all other abusive marriage, I patiently endured the excesses. One night my in-laws and my husband had gone for a movie. When they returned in the night, my husband came upstairs in the room where I was sleeping and started hitting me, saying I was responsible for him not getting promotions in his job,” Sindhu said to the News Minute.
A CCTV camera installed at the home captured a series of video unravelling the brutal onslaught that Sindhu endured that night. In one of the videos, four family members are seen animatedly arguing over some issue. In an instance, the younger man can be seen vigorously pushing his wife and hitting her. He then shoves her on the couch. As the woman tries to get up and respond to the young man, the old man stops the woman by holding her arm and decks her back onto couch. He is seen aggressively pushing and strangling her.
During this, a toddler is seen in the video, clutching at her mother’s leg who is being assaulted by the two men in the video frame. At this juncture, another woman enters the room and then they pull the younger woman off the couch onto the floor. The woman’s other child who comes in the room is reprimanded by the young man and sent back in the other room.
Several other videos from the house’s CCTV camera illustrating in horrific details the atrocities meted out to the survivor have surfaced, strengthening Sindhu’s allegations that she was continuously tortured and physically abused by her in-laws family.
Sindhu alleges that when the assault intensified, she called for help. However, far from helping her, the in-laws barged into the room and started assaulting her, she claims. Sindhu asserted that later even the househelp joined in to beat her. As she was grievously injured, the family rushed her to hospital in the car. According to Sindhu, she was verbally and physically assaulted in the car as well while she was being transported to Apollo Hospital in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad.
Sindhu asserted that the Judge’s primary concern on reaching the hospital was to stop her from narrating her ordeal to others. “He kept shouting at them that I am mentally unstable and I need sedatives to stabilise me. My clothes were torn so the hospital staff gave me a bedsheet to cover myself,” Sindhu said.
Disregarding her father-in-law’s demands, the hospital authorities helped Sindhu to file a medico-legal case. Sindhu had scratches over her chest on the left side, cuts over her left breast and upper lip, and contusions over her right shoulder and her right forearm.
After being discharged from the hospital, Sindhu went to her parents’ house and filed a case against the retired judge, his wife, son and their househelp at the Central Crime Station in Hyderabad under sections 498A (cruelty by husband and relatives), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code and Dowry Prohibition Act.
Several other videos from the house’s CCTV camera have illustrated in horrific details the atrocities meted out to the woman, strengthening her allegations that she was continuously tortured and physically abused by the retired HC judge, his wife and their son.
ACP K Sreedevi, Assistant Commissioner of Police said that they were planning to obtain magistrate orders to obtain the CCTV footage from the house, but as the videos have surfaced now, they have decided to submit the same at the court and proceed with the investigation. Sindhu said that she had accessed the videos in April, but decided to release them only now, after her husband filed for divorce.
Former Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi has held India and IPL responsible for the International cricketers refusing to tour Pakistan citing security concerns. Afridi asserted that IPL franchisees are exerting pressure on the players to shun playing in Pakistan and its T20 league or else they won’t be granted any contracts in the subsequent editions of the Indian Premier League(IPL). Afridi made this comments after 10 Srilankan cricketers opted out of a tour of Pakistan citing security reasons.
#Exclusive#Breaking | Pakistani cricketer @SAfridiOfficial offers ridiculous reasons for Sri Lankan players cancelling their Pakistan tour. Instead of citing the terror outfit in Pakistan, Afridi has resorted to blame India and IPL.
“I had a chat with many Sri Lankan players who wanted to play in Pakistan and in the Pakistan Super League but they confided in to me that they are being pressurised by India and IPL to not play in Pakistan or else they won’t be awarded IPL contracts,” Afridi said.
Instead of raising the issue of terrorism and deteriorating security in Pakistan, that is the reason why it is internationally banished from hosting any ICC cricketing event, Shahid Afridi proceeds to insinuate that India and IPL franchisees are coercing the cricketers to stop playing in Pakistan. In fact, out of all the 10 players of the Sri Lankan team that opted out of Pakistan tour citing security concern, only Lasith Malinga is the one who currently has an IPL contract, none of the others as of now have an IPL contract signed by them.
Shahid Afridi has a knack of lying and thus it is difficult to believe his claim that Sri Lankan players have privately confessed to him of being pressurised by India and IPL franchisees. The former Pakistani cricketer has himself admitted to lying about many things including his age in his recently published autobiography. Besides, Afridi also conveniently hides the fact that Sri Lankan cricketers have pulled out of the tour because of the worsening security situation in Pakistan due to their continued and sustained support to terrorism.
Shahid Afridi is not the only cricketer to blame IPL for Sri Lankan cricketers opting out of the upcoming tour. A few days ago Pakistani federal minister of science and technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain had made the same allegations. The minister said that the same on Twitter hours after a prankster had sent a message to him on WhatsApp that the decision by Sri Lankan players was taken after the IPL authorities threatened them that they’ll be thrown out of IPL if they go to Pakistan.
Sri Lanka is set to tour Pakistan almost after a decade of the terrorist attack on the touring Sri Lankan team that left many senior Sri Lankan squad members then critically injured. As many as 10 current Sri Lankan cricketers have pulled out from the Pakistan tour citing security concern. They are- Lasith Malinga, Thisara Perera, Angelo Mathews, Niroshan Dickwella, Kusal Perera, Dhananjaya de Silva, Akila Dananjaya, Suranga Lakmal, Dinesh Chandimal And Dimuth Karunaraten.
The Sri Lankan team in March 2009 came under attack as terrorists started indiscriminately firing on the bus carrying the Sri Lankan team when it was on its way to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore ahead of the third day of the second Test against Pakistan. Eminent cricketer Kumar Sangakkara was one of the 5 cricketers who received shrapnel wounds in the attack.
International Cricket Council: Sri Lanka’s upcoming tour to Pakistan, which is set to feature the first Tests played in the country since a terrorist attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus in 2009, is set to go ahead as planned. pic.twitter.com/jzSqPkueIg
However, despite most members of the team opting out, the Sri Lankan cricket board has still decided to go ahead with the tour and fulfil the commitments made to the Pakistan Cricket Board as they prepare to send an inexperienced squad comprising of new players.
Sri Lanka cricket team is scheduled to play three one-day internationals and three Twenty20 matches in Pakistan between Sept. 27 and Oct. 9. This will be Sri Lanka’s first tour in Pakistan since 2009.
The Telegraph, the far-left propaganda website, is at its usual worst again. In a report on the Battle of Jadavpur titled, ironically enough, “Babull at Jadavpur University”, the newspaper concluded that the Union Minister was equally responsible for the violence at Jadavpur despite the fact that he was a victim of unprovoked violence.
That the report refers to Babul Supriyo as ‘Babull’, as if it is supposed to be clever, is trivializing of a matter that’s extremely serious. The least any media outlet is expected to do since they don’t even bother staying true to facts anymore is that they treat serious issues seriously. But they appear to have abandoned their pursuit of it as well.
The Telegraph, it appears taking a dig at the BJP leader is more important than adhering to conventional norms of journalistic integrity. If a media outlet isn’t even competent enough to gauge the severity of the matter at hand, then one wonders if they are competent enough at anything at all.
People need to understand at this point that The Telegraph is more of an advocacy group than an actuam media organization. During the elections, its editor had claimed in an article removing Narendra Modi from power was the only hope for India’s redemption. This is not how a news organization functions or is supposed to function.
The editor’s inherent biases tend to flow into its pages. For instance, the alleged newspaper equated the abrogation of Article 370 with ‘Partition‘. The Partition was a very dark episode in Indian history, a genocide of Hindus occurred at the time. Hindu women were raped brutally in front of their families. Children were left orphans. Blood flowed in the streets like water. And The Telegraph thought it was clever to equate the integration of Jammu & Kashmir with the rest of India to it. And it was all after ignoring the fact that the state has been far more peaceful than it has ever been in decades.
On another occasion, the newspaper portrayed activists demonstrating in favour of the abrogation of Article 370 as those protesting against it. When a newspaper has such terrible editors, its content will is fated to suffer.
If The Telegraph concerned itself more with journalistic integrity and chose to ally itself more with Truth instead of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), its standards will without a doubt improve drastically. But it appears the editors of the newspaper will be more willing to accompany Frodo Baggins to Mordor than that. In the meantime, journalism will continue to suffer. Perhaps, The Telegraph can find its spine in Mamata Banerjee’s purse.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan is expected to meet US President Donald Trump in New York on September 23, hours after he arrives in the city for the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, diplomatic sources said on Friday.
According to sources, this meeting could be the first of the two meetings Imran Khan is expected to have with the US President on the sidelines of the UN session. Notably, Imran Khan is expected to reach New York on Sunday evening, the day when the US President, Donald Trump is set to join India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the ‘Howdy, Modi’ mega-event in Houston, where Modi will address a meeting of 50,000-strong Indian diaspora.
Both Narendra Modi and Imran Khan are scheduled to address the UN General Assembly on September 27.
Imran Khan, who has been recently obsessing over Kashmir, especially after India went ahead with its decision to abrogate Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir has vowed to raise the Kashmir issue at the UNGA session.
Despite being snubbed time and again by almost all countries globally, Imran Khan refuses to back down on the issue. Such is the situation now, that the self-acclaimed ‘ambassador of Kashmir’ is gradually turning himself into an object of ridicule. Today in another jolt, Pakistan failed to secure the support of minimum 16 nations to move a resolution on Kashmir in the 47-member UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
September 19 (Thursday) was the last day for bringing such an initiative during the September 9th to 27th UNHRC session and Pakistan was unsuccessful in filing a request after it failed to garner the minimum support.
Despite being unsuccessful in getting support in UNHRC for any of its moves so far, Imran Khan is still considering to raise the Kashmir issue once again in the upcoming UN session.
The Foreign Office in a statement said Pakistan will exercise all options available to ensure that the UN Human Rights Council actions “meaningfully impact on the ground situation in Kashmir.”
Meanwhile, India’s Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale on Thursday said the focus of Prime Minister Modi’s week-long visit to the US from Saturday will not be on terrorism, but on highlighting India’s achievements and its global role.
Microblogging platform Twitter has shut down thousands of pro-government propaganda accounts, most of which were originating from United Arab Emirates. These accounts were reportedly involved in ‘multi-faced information operation’ which mostly targeted Qatar.
As per reports, Twitter has suspended 4,258 accounts which employed fake names tweeting mostly about Yemen and Qatar. Another 267 accounts in UAE and Egypt which were pro-Saudi government accounts were suspended.
A company called DotDev, based in Abu Dhabi, was operating these accounts. It also has an Egyptian affiliate based in Giza, outside of Cairo. Last month, Facebook had also removed 350 fake accounts and pages promoting Saudi propaganda.
As per reports, accounts from China seeking how to sow discord amongst the protestors in Hong Kong were also closed down. Fake news accounts in Spain and Ecuador were also shut down.
Mark Tully, a Padma Bhushan awardee who worked as the Chief of the Delhi bureau of BBC for two decades, has come out harshly against the Congress party for what he perceives to be a foolish obsession with ‘secularism’ and thereby, neglecting the Hindu ethos of the country.
“First of all ‘secularism’ is not the right word to use in this Indian context at all because secularism has a connotation of hostility towards all religions or indifference towards religion and Indians are not hostile to religion and Indians are not indifferent to religion,” Mark Tully, ex-BBC Delhi Chief and Padma Bhushan awardee said at an event in Goa, The Hindu reported.
“The mistake the Congress party made was to continue with this word secularism… that left the BJP free to say we are the party of Hindus and this is Hinduism… The Congress should have found in its politics someplace for the Hindu community just as it found for Muslims or others,” said Mark Tully.
“I think that today what the Congress should say is that India is a country where 80% call themselves Hindus and we believe that Hinduism, which is natural to India, is a pluralistic religion, a religion which is proud of being tolerant and welcoming to other religions, proud of India’s history,” Mark Tully who used to be BBC Delhi chief further stated about Congress.
It appears rather bewildering that Tully, being a Britisher, understands the realities of India far more than a political party that has ruled over the country for decades. Tully’s recommendations for the Congress party are simple ‘common sense’ advise that people with their ears on the ground, as serious politicians are expected to be, should have been perfectly aware of. If Tully, a foreigner, could understand such a simple truth about India, the reasons for the Congress party not being able to are entirely incomprehensible.
To almost everyone, it was obvious that the Congress party’s brand of secularism did not have a place for Hindu concerns in it while the party continued to pander to the most extremist elements of minority communities. In a country where the overwhelming majority of citizens are Hindus, it was politically suicidal for the Congress.
While Rahul Gandhi attempted to fix the party’s image by paying visits to numerous Temples, he didn’t have the credibility to improve things for the better. Even more damningly, the leaders of the party continued to make noxious comments and voice their support for elements that cause a trust-deficit with the Hindu community.
If the Congress party had listened to people like Tully in the media instead of the ‘Woke’ comedians and other Darbaris, it may not have suffered as terrible a defeat as they did in the General Elections. It appears that they haven’t learned any lessons from its terrible defeat at all as senior leaders like Digvijaya Singh continue to make comments that further alienate the Hindu community from the Congress.
Time appears to have run out for the Congress party and there appears to be no effort at all to learn from the mistakes they made. Considering their conduct post the abrogation of Article 370, the Congress party looks set to be reduced to political irrelevance.
In an exemplary act of bravery, girls belonging to two adjoining villages, Atta and Barota in Haryana, stood up against the incidents of harassment which they had been enduring at the hands of some notorious eve-teasers of a specific-community residing in Udaka village in Haryana.
In what transpired, a girl studying in Government senior secondary school Atta-Barota was molested by a boy belonging to a specific-community from Udaka village on September 7. When the family members of the victim approached the school authorities to complain against the boy, some miscreants belonging to the boy’s village started spreading rumours that people from Barota village (from where the girl belonged) had beaten them badly. After this dozens of people from Udaka village reached the school with sticks and batons and vandalised the school before fleeing.
This was, however, not the only incident which led the girls and villagers from Atta-Barota village to revolt. Girls belonging to Atta and Barota village, studying in Government senior secondary school, were being constantly harassed by eve-teasers from the Udaka village. These boys continuously made passes at the girls, passed lewd remarks, followed them wherever they went and even molested them on their way.
Sick and tired of all this, the girls and their families decided to speak up against the eve-teasers. On September 16 (Monday) families and relatives of these girls and hundreds of students reached the District Secretariat and submitted a letter with their demands to DC.
In the letter, they warned that if the eve-teasers from Udaka village were not rusticated from the school, then none of the children from both Atta and Barota village will attend school.
The Sarpanch of Barota village Dharmendra, Anand Singh, the Sarpanch of Aata village, Surendra Numberdar Barota, Lalsingh Numberdar, Dinesh Yadav, Jawahar, Zilla Singh, Yogesh, Rajesh, Charan Singh, Manohar Lal, Dharambir, Gajendra Singh were amongst many others who approached the District Secretariat to seek justice for the girls.
A 68-year-old Christian priest of the Syro Malabar Church named Father George Padayattil, the vicar of Holy Cross Church in Chendamangalam in Ernakulam district, has been booked for the rape of three 9-year-old girls, reports The News Minute.
According to the report, the case has been registered against ‘Father’ Padayattil after the three minor victims complained to their teacher that the Christian priest had touched them inappropriately.
“The incidents happened last month when the girls went to the priest’s ‘meda’, the place where he stays alongside the church, to get his blessings after Sunday rites. According to the complaint, the girls revealed that he touched them inappropriately during two such incidents,” the officials at the Vadakkekkara Police station said.
Reportedly, the story came to light after one of the three children reported the incident to her school teacher. The police added that the teacher informed Childline officials and they received a complaint through the child welfare committee. The three girls are studying in the same school and are classmates.
Parents of the three children were informed by the school teachers who had spoken to the students.
The Kerala police have booked Christian priest Father George Padayattil under Section 10 (Punishment for aggravated sexual assault) and Section 11 (Sexual harassment) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for the rape of the minors. According to the police, the priest is currently absconding.
The police further added that the minor victims gave their statement to the judicial magistrate under oath. “We are waiting to receive a copy of the statement, following which we will increase the charges against him,” the police official said.
There has been a dangerous trend of repeated cases of rape and other abusive incidents at Churches across the world. Unfortunately, India is not immune to this plague either. Christian priest and churches, like most cases worldwide, have been targeting the poor, destitute for their crimes but the cases go unnoticed.
However, in India, the crimes have been coming into public domain lately. There have been several incidents of sexual harassment and other abuse by Church officials and priests.
In 2018, a 45-year-old Christian priest was booked for the brutal rape an 11-year old girl in Vallampadu, Andhra Pradesh. In July 2017, Father Saji Joesph, a priest who was the director of a children’s home in Kerala’s Wayanad district, was arrested after allegations of sexually abusing minor boys.
Franco Mulakkal, a Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar, was arrested and released on bail later for allegedly raping a 44-year old nun at a guest house in Kuravilangad in May 2014.
Similarly, Father Johnson V Mathew, a priest of Malankara Orthodox church was accused in the rape and sexual abuse of a married woman belonging to the fold was arrested in July 2018.
In February, the Mysuru police had arrested three pastors (religious leaders associated with protestant Churches) for allegedly raping a teenager in Mangaluru. All the three Christian priests have now been charged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, as per reports.
In another incident, a 60-year-old pastor named Chandra Kumar belonging to a local church in Nagaland was arrested for allegedly raping a 10-year-old girl in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district.
In another incident, a 33-year old Catholic priest, Father Prakash Damor was arrested in Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh for abetting a 17-year-old girl’s suicide.
Recently, a special Mahila Court in Cuddalore had sentenced a church priest to 30 years in prison and nine others to life in prison for their involvement in the horrifying 2014 Tittakudi rape case, which involved two minor girls.
Sometime around 5 PM on Thursday, my mother called to tell me that there was some ruckus going on at Jadavpur University and Union Minister Babul Supriyo was in the middle of it. I told her what anyone aware of Kolkata would tell her, “Mom, it’s Jadavpur University. There is a ruckus there every other week. Don’t worry about it.”
Somehow, my mom wasn’t entirely pacified and she was extremely angry with how the ‘protesters’ were behaving. It was only later in the evening when I had the time to look into the matter in detail that I realized that the issue was far bigger than I previously imagined it to be. The visuals coming from Jadavpur were outrageous, to put it mildly. They are nearly always bad but this time around, there was something particularly sinister about them.
One of the first visuals I saw showed Babul Supriyo standing in front of the media and one ‘protester’ grabbed him by his hair and pulled him.
The ‘protesters’ didn’t stop at that. By the end of it, Supriyo’s shirt was torn open by the mob heckling him. Under no circumstances can tearing the shirt of a Union Minister be considered a legitimate form of protest.
One wonders at this point when Babul Supriyo decided to take the leap of faith and join politics, did he ever imagine he would find himself in such a situation? Most celebrity politicians do not invest too much time into building their own base, much less risk getting assaulted by violent goons.
This is not even the first time that Babul Supriyo has risked physical injury to perform his duty as an elected representative. During the General Elections, his car was vandalized, allegedly by Trinamool workers, when he visited his constituency, Asansol. In March last year, he was prevented from meeting victims of communal violence and entering his constituency. Again, he was allegedly assaulted by the Police.
Coming back to the current situation, the moment in the episode when Babul Supriyo shines through is when he addresses the ‘protesters’ in front of the media. He could be seen standing right in the middle of the chaotic mob and confront them about their biases. There was a certain amount of anger in his demeanour and yet, he remained calm enough to not deviate from the issue at hand and was careful to not further escalate the situation.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R8ZqHfitPQ]
“These are kids,” he said, “These people are hot-headed but if there isn’t no opposition, who are you going to fight against, Bhai? The opposition is necessary.” He extended a hand of reconciliation and yet, was firm enough to tell them in strong words that their behaviour was totally out of order.
“Didi Modi, we don’t respect anyone,” one ‘protester’ told him in an extremely rude manner. He replied, “Your bravado won’t work with me, talk decently.” To another ‘protester’ he said, “You cannot abuse me this way. Have I abused anyone? Have my security guards done anything wrong? You don’t know these Bangla abuses, you’ll teach me now? Should I give one or two?”
To another ‘protester’ who had raised the question of NRC, he replied, “You are asking me about NRC, tell me what it is. What is the full form of NRC? Tell me. Tell me what is the full form of NRC. You don’t even know it, do you? And here you are talking about the NRC.” To yet another, he said, “You are doing drama here. They won’t show you on television. Ei, they won’t show you on television.”
At one point, it appeared as though he was mocking the ‘protesters’ but it was quite evident that he had grown tired of it all and was just being extremely honest. “I won’t go anywhere. First, you learn some decency and then, I will leave,” he said. “I can go anywhere, I am the Minister for Climate and Forest. I have come to see these things,” he said on another occasion pointing towards the trees. “Argue logically, don’t say stupid things,” he added.
He was much more aggressive with the college administration than he was with the ‘protesters’. He accused them of deliberately trying to foment chaos and held them responsible for the deteriorating law and order situation. Even in the heat of the moment, Supriyo managed to keep a calm head to consider the implications of his every action. “If I try to move ahead,” he told one of them, “you’ll prove and create a commotion here. I won’t give you that opportunity.”
Babul Supriyo had the most iconic moment of his political career thus far when he lay on the hood of his car, exuding an air of nonchalant confidence as the chaos continued around him. “I am not scared of you,” his body language conveyed clearly, “this is not your bastion anymore”. The Leftists, quite naturally, didn’t like it.
As much as the focus remained on Babul Supriyo, it is also important to learn the other side of the story as well. It is important to see how the ‘protesters’ and those supporting them are reacting to the events that transpired on Thursday.
For one, Babul Supriyo is being accused of elbowing a girl during the fracas. The photograph shows the singer turned politician with his elbow resting on someone’s shoulder whose gender is not entirely clear. But we have to assume that it is a girl. However, the image doesn’t show Supriyo in poor light at all. In fact, it makes the ‘protesters’ look infinitely worse.
Supriyo has his shirt torn open and it’s evident from the image that the ‘protesters’ are invading his personal space and one can only imagine how uncomfortable he must have felt at that moment. Although it’s not evident from the photograph, it appears almost obvious that he was assaulted and he was acting in self-defence.
The girl might well have gotten hurt in the process but Supriyo could hardly be blamed for it. It’s not farfetched to assume that he felt threatened at that moment and he acted in self-defence. Or more likely, it might have been completely unintentional and the girl got injured when Supriyo moved his hand instinctively. Blaming him for the girl’s injury appears incredulous. “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes,” is the only thing that comes to mind when one sees this picture.
Another accusation, this time against the ABVP, claims that the youth-wing of the RSS came with explosives and swords and set Gate No. 4 of the University on fire. This seems entirely implausible. It appears unbelievable that people armed with explosives and swords would dare enter Jadavpur, one of the most lively places in Kolkata. While we can’t say for uncertain who set what on fire, it is plausible that people associated with the ABVP were responsible for it. Furthermore, it needs to be said here that there’s no evidence whatsoever as of now that Supriyo abused any disabled man in any manner.
Jadavpur University Gate no 4 set on fire by ABVP goons who came on bikes with explosives and swords through bypass, students being asked to leave ; this is happening NOW , because students dared to heckle Babul Supriyo, who told a disabled man he would break his legs! Fascists ! pic.twitter.com/dCyULvxDo5
According to reports, ABVP and Durga Vahini, the flagbearers of the surge of the Bhagwa among the youth in Bengal, attacked the University in response to the Left’s attack on Supriyo. The Arts Faculty Union Room was ransacked, the furniture was vandalized, Left posters and the banners were shredded to bits, and a portrait of the homophobe Che Guevera kept in the room was damaged. The youth organization did not stop at that and proceeded to paint ABVP graffiti in the Leftist union room.
The following is the most iconic image to come out Bengal in recent times. Outsiders may not realize it but this is further confirmation of the fact that on the occasion of Ram Navami in 2017, Bengal was changed forever. Everything followed from that.
Arts Faculty Union Room in JU ransacked by ABVP
The rhetoric from Leftists in the aftermath of the violence at Jadavpur is not helping. It’s extremely disturbing considering the implications of it. Premeditated and unprovoked violence against saffron karyakartas is being justified. It could only lead to further chaos. More disturbingly, there appears to be absolutely zero introspection on how matters escalate to this point.
There appears to be a concerted attempt to completely deny any wrongdoing on the part of the ‘protesters’. While the ABVP could very well be accused of taking matters a bit too far, it cannot be denied that their actions didn’t occur in a vacuum. The ‘protesters’ and their supporters refuse to admit that they contributed to the violence in any manner whatsoever. The people associated with the ABVP are being portrayed as some crazed monsters who have been created for the sole purpose of wreaking havoc at Jadavpur University. We all know that’s not the truth.
According to the Left, the ‘students’ were only exercising their ‘right to dissent’. In what world is tearing open the shirt of a democratically elected representative of the government considered a legitimate form of protest? In what world is holding captive a Union Minister against his will considered acceptable? It was only after the ABVP intervened that Supriyo was allowed to leave the University.
The blame for the mess lies squarely with the governments that have ruled West Bengal until this point. Cancer at Jadavpur University has metastasized to this extent only because neither the erstwhile Left regime nor the current Trinamool regime considered the matter important enough to merit much deliberation. Even the violence on Thursday occurred entirely because the government failed to maintain a hold over law and order. And now we have reached a point where ‘students’ at the University think it was a good idea to grab a Union Minister by his hair in front of the camera on national television. And they still have the temerity to pretend as if the Leftists did nothing wrong.
The biggest takeaway from the Battle of Jadavpur on Thursday is that the radical Leftists at the University haven’t come to terms with the rise of the Bhagwa in West Bengal. They are still functioning under the assumption that the political culture of Bengal has remained the same despite the success BJP has achieved in recent times. But it’s far from the truth.
The Changing of the Guard that occurred when Trinamool ousted the erstwhile Communist regime didn’t mark a fundamental shift in the political culture of Bengal. The colour of politics did change from Red to Green but the essential nature of it remained the same. However, Kesari is an entirely different beast altogether.
The dawn of the Bhagwa in Bengal doesn’t merely represent a political shift in Bengal, it is much more fundamental than that. While the Trinamool regime was content with greeting the ‘students’ of Jadavpur with lathi-charge whenever they tried to disrupt government functions, it ignored them entirely the rest of the time. Thus, the perennial protesters could then claim a victory while playing the victim card.
The Bhagwa, on the other hand, wants to put an end to this culture forever. It does not wish to tolerate ‘dissent’ that promotes discord within the country and challenges the territotial and cultural integrity of the Indian Union. Therefore, the Battle of Jadavpur was fated to happen at some point or the other.
The Left suffered a crushing defeat on Thursday. Their union room was ransacked, the portrait of their revered hero Guevera was damaged and their posters and banners were torn to shreds. Worse for them, they come out of the entire episode looking like a bunch of hooligans and brats, which they undoubtedly are, who have no respect for the institutions of the country and aren’t capable of holding a civilized discussion with a political opponent.
Even more of an embarrassment for them is the fact that Babul Supriyo, who they decided to battle against in their own territory, came out of it looking like a hero. He went to their campus, delivered his speech, was held hostage and then was rescued in rather heroic fashion by his band of followers. It was a complete disaster for the Left no matter how one looks at it. Admittedly, they have thoroughly earned the humiliating defeat.
When I called my mom later at night, I told her I hadn’t realized the matter was this significant. My mom, whose anger had abated by then, asked me in a rather morose tone, “Don’t these kids realize what they are doing? Don’t they think about their parents at all? Don’t they realize what they are putting their parents through?” I couldn’t find it in my heart to tell her that the Left considers the world their generation built a vestige of a tyrannical edifice that ought to be rooted out branch and stem. I couldn’t tell her that they consider whatever suffering they, and those around them, are forced to endure because of their terrible and indefensible actions are worth it for the righteousness of their intentions.
